CHOC Hospital Visit

Today R2 was a guest at Children's Hospital Orange County, to visit some special patients and family members. R2 was joined by Mike Senna, as a Stormtrooper.



(Note that as is normally the case with hospital visits, pictures of the patients are not allowed without explicit permission of the patient and family, so despite the many patient visits we made, I'm unable to share photos of them.)

After we had gone up to the third, floor, but before we started our visits to the rooms, R2's right foot motor decided it was done working for the day. Mike and I diagnosed and troubleshot, and the initial conclusion is that the NPC2212 motor on the right foot is the problem, it doesn't seem to be wiring or other electronics. Why it decided to quit right then and there is a mystery, one we will try to solve Sunday when we have time to review what might have happened.

[Edit: In testing the motor in isolation the following day, it seems to work. So I'm not quite sure yet exactly what is wrong. More troubleshooting to follow.]



With the motor non-functional, Mike removed the chains on the drivetrains, so we could push R2 to where he needed to be. The dome, sounds and utility arms all continued to work just fine under remote control, so it wasn't really much of a problem.



R2's first visit was to Lindsey, who is a Star Wars fan. And an old-school Star Wars fan at that. Her favorite movie is Return of the Jedi, and her favorite character is Darth Vader. With the family's permission, here is Lindsey with her family, along with Mike and R2.



In the hallway, R2 and Mike did a command performance of the Cantina Dance.



We visited many patients' rooms, and they all seemed happy to see these well-known characters. One five-year-old in particular was another big Star Wars fan, and we were able to give him a few Star Wars goodies.

Of course, members of the staff were excited by the visit too, and took lots of pictures.






Thank you to Amber at CHOC for helping arrange the visit, and to Lindsey's little sister, along with her mom and dad.

A big thank you to Paul Bussiere for putting Lindsey's mom in touch with us, so that we could make this visit a reality. Hopefully we can come back again sometime.